A Serious Business
by AlreadyPainfullyGone
Summary: Companion to 'A series of unfortunate texts' - Basically how Sam and Gabriel meet. Can be read on its own and has no sway over the other story at all. Fluff, humour, romance and a little angst.
1. Chapter 1

_I guess this is a companion to 'A Series of Unfortunate Texts' because I got maybe one review asking how Sam and Gabriel met...and I can never right too many meet-cutes. _

"Hey, Gigantor, would ya?"

Sam really wishes everyone would cut it with the 'Sam the Giant' crap. Every time the firm sends him to a new office to take care of some internal problem he gets the same thing but from different people. Jokes about getting him bigger mugs and chairs, asking him how the world looks from up there, and most irritatingly, asking him to reaching things down for them.

He turns round to give the guy his standard polite smile and 'I'm busy' brush off. That's when he sees that he could pretty much pick him up and keep him in his pocket. This guy is five foot if that, short and slightly rounded with a lot of slicked back blondish-brown hair – giving him the look of a slightly stuffy cherub. He gestures impotently at the heavy ledger several shelves over his head.

"You want me to get that?" He still hasn't quite let go of the 'Gigantor' anger, even if the guy does need help.

"No, lift me you big strong thing." The guy drawls, hand resting on his hip. "Of course I need you to...hey!"

And Sam is officially unprofessional.

Lifting one of the employees of the business he's currently representing for in-house misconduct?

Oh, his ass is so fired.

Ruby is going to kill him.

He realises he's still holding the guy up, only he's now holding the folder in one hand and looking down at him with minor irritation and a little bit of awe.

"Uh...going down?" He squirms a little and Sam lowers him to the ground, brown eyes pass his as the smaller man's body slithers down his to the ground. One on two feet again he smirks lasciviously, hefting the file and backing away.

"See you around Big Bird."

Sam's left watching the rapidly disappearing figure, wondering why his face is flaming when he was the one toting the guy like a Muppet. Which...

"Anytime, Elmo."

The guy twists at the end of the hall, winks, then slips though an office door and vanishes.

And that's how Sam meets Gabriel Garrison, head honcho of the company Sam's trying to straighten out, thanks to Bobby Singer's poor people skills.

He doesn't find out who Gabriel is until the meeting that afternoon.

The meeting is actually over by the time Gabriel arrives, shoving open the door with an armful of files and dumping them on the table before he realises that Sam is the only one in the room, eating the remaining half of his salad and going over some notes.

"I have a meeting...?"

"You had a meeting...half an hour ago." Sam crunches a lettuce leaf.

"Oh well, can't win 'em all." Gabriel undoes his tie and pulls it from his collar, opening the top two buttons of his shirt. He paces towards the window, and Sam's seat, even sitting down he's only a little less than the same height of the other man.

"So...aren't they going to be mad that you missed it?" He asks, fishing for the last sliver of tomato.

"Are you?" He quirks an eyebrow, hand resting on the back of Sam's chair.

"Might have made it more entertaining." Sam finds himself saying. "Legalese, blah blah, tasteless joke, blah blah...could break it up nicely."

The other man smiles like his face is literally splitting from impish glee. "Add another attractive face to the room...couldn't hurt."

Sam's ears burn, which pretty much hasn't happened since high school.

The other man drops into the chair just around the corner of the table from him. "Gabriel, by the way."

"Sam."

He extends a hand, Sam shakes it and the other man takes his time letting go. For someone so small he has strong fingers.

"You married?" Sam registers that Gabriel is looking at his wedding band.

"Yeah...few years now." He catches the eyes of the other man and they aren't exactly brown like he'd thought, more gold, looking at him like he's some delicious but unfortunately allergy incompatible food.

"So...Sammy, want to catch me up on this stuff? Just in case someone tests me later?" He tilts his head and pouts in a way that probably wouldn't work on your average guy. But then pocket-sized-Gabriel's aren't exactly average.

"Sure." And so Sam goes over the ins and outs of the negotiations. Halfway through a young man sticks his head round the door and notices Gabriel.

"Mr Garrison? Conference call for you."

"Thanks." He's biting his lip when he looks back at Sam, looking like a child caught out in a lie.

"Garrison? Garrison, like, my name is on the side of the building, Garrison?" Sam is both shocked and a little pissed. He should have known who he was, or Gabriel should have told him.

"Yeah, but in really tiny letters...you can barely see it from across the parking lot." Gabriel shuffles his folders together. "It was nice talking to you Sam..." he looks down at the plastic cafeteria box on the desk. "There's a nice salad place about five minutes from here, come by my office tomorrow and I'll show you, k?"

Sam nods in stunned silence.

"Not that I do salads, but I do sadism, so I'll be eating a burger in front of you...maybe some chocolate too."

"That sounds...good, great actually."

"Catch you then."

Gabriel bounces from the room, folders in his arms, and Sam rubs his wedding ring absently with his finger, like he always does when he's worried. It's only on the drive home that he wonders if all men notice wedding rings – Gabriel has been the first to comment on it.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam stops by Gabriel's office the next day, half convinced that the guy was just being friendly and really had no intention of going anywhere with him. But when he opens the door Gabriel grins at him, a candy sucker wedged into the corner of his mouth and his phone pinned to the side of his face. He waves and holds up two fingers, the universal sign for 'just a sec' then starts speaking rapid fire Japanese.

Sam's kind of stunned at that. After a few seconds of complex, high speed conversation Gabriel drops the phone into its cradle and swivels to face Sam directly in one move.

Hey Sam...just let me find my..." he hunts for his wallet on the messy desk, crunching the sucker irritably. When he locates it he withdraws a few bills, shoves them into his pocket and stands. "Shall we?"

They end up in a booth at the back of a quiet, dimly lit restaurant a few minutes' walk from the office building. It has red paper lanterns and offers warm Saki, but also burgers and a formidable wine list. There's a cactus on their table and a sombrero over the bar. Sam finds himself thinking that if Gabriel were an eatery, this is probably what it would look like.

He orders the Caesar salad, Gabriel, true to his threats, orders a burger and slice of chocolate cake thick enough to wedge open a door.

"So, how's the thing with Bobby going? Crusty the Partner giving you much trouble?"

"Nothing too troubling." Sam's put at ease by the professional conversation, otherwise he'd be a little weirded out by having lunch with the head of the company he's currently working for.

"Not to freak you out or anything but...you know I could crush you right? Professionally speaking?" Gabriel puts in calmly, causing Sam to choke on his mouthful of water. The smaller man wiggles an eyebrow and smirks. "Joke Sammy, but seriously, be more tense."

"Sorry...I just...this is a little weird." Gabriel looks nonplussed. "Having lunch with you when you're my...boss, well, my bosses, boss...and..."

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Gabriel toys with the remainder of his burger.

"I'm not...ok so I am, but just because I can't figure out why you'd want to talk to me in the first place." Sam's well aware that, despite the fact that Dean thinks he's the best-lawyer-that-ever-graced-the-halls-of-Stanford, he's small fry compared to a guy like Gabriel Garrison.

"Oh, the stimulating conversation, the ironic visual of a ten foot suit and the pocket sized CEO." Gabriel waves his fork airily then tips his head to one side casually. "You called me Elmo, it was darling." He does that thing with his eyebrows again, making 'darling' sound kind of filthy, which does all kinds of unhealthy things to the level of blush Sam's already sporting. "You're cute when you blush."

Sam feels himself turn puce. He has no idea what this is, but he's married, and Gabriel knows that he's married, so either he's just doing it to dick around with him and have a little fun at his expense, or he's serious and Sam's going to have to sue for sexual assessment.

Maybe he just has no boundaries.

Again, Gabriel seems to sense his unease.

"You're straight I get it." He considers a forkful of cake with rapt attention. "Doesn't mean I can't be friendly, and I hit on anything that moves...well, that moves a certain way." He brings the forkful of frosting to his lips and works it clean with a quick stroke of his tongue.

Sam realises he's just watching his mouth.

"So it's no big." Gabriel continues. He wipes more frosting from the empty plate with his finger, and if he wasn't so casual about it Sam would swear he was doing it on purpose, but no, Gabriel is apparently a natural exhibitionist. "We can be friends, right?" He sucks the frosting from his thumb and then his forefinger, eyes closing briefly and cheeks hollowing slightly.

Sam is abruptly and shamefully half-hard.

It's kind of shock because he's never looked at a man that way. He's kind of been the all American poster boy for heterosexuality, with his Mom and Dad and their neat little house, his car and chick obsessed brother and his marriage to his high school sweetheart.

And now Gabriel and his mouth.

"Sammy?" Gabriel's voice cuts through his troubled reverie. "You alive in there?"

"Yeah...I just..." Sam stutters and Gabriel blinks before registering what he's been doing. His eyes are bright and sly, slightly amused at Sam's discomfort.

"You just...need a minute." He says, heavily insinuation, and another kick of blood heads southwards, much to Sam's dismay. He glares at the smaller man, who just raises an eyebrow and leans up a little, eyes raking down Sam's chest to his lap. Sam can't moves, just watches Gabriel check him out, the other man's tongue a slight pink point at the corner of his mouth. "So...you're easy." He says conversationally, bright voice a little husky. "Not that I don't appreciate a challenge but..." he breathes out in a rush. "Look. At. You."

It really shouldn't be happening. Sam should not be having lunch with Gabriel, getting leered at and spoken to like he's a hooker in a freaking porno, it should not be getting him harder by the minute, because he's a man, and Gabriel is a man and his boss, and he's married...but it is, and it feels good, somehow.

"I'm married." He manages to get out.

"So it would be bad." Gabriel says, tone not lightening but if anything getting deeper, softer. "really..." His knee nudges between Sam's under the table, pressing just slightly against his groin in the cramped space. "for this to go anywhere..."

The chimes over the door ring as a party of diners enter the mostly empty restaurant.

"I think your lunch hour's up." Gabriel pops the 'p' and swallows hard. His forehead creases like he has no idea what's going on here either, and Sam wonders if he really was just trying to bait a reaction out of him, right before things got serious.

Sam grabs for his wallet. Gabriel holds up his hand.

"I'll get it." He murmurs. "and I'll see you back at the office." Sam is left with no choice but to get up and leave the table, the other man's words ringing in his ears, knowing that Gabriel is watching him leave.


	3. Chapter 3

Gabriel can fully admit that he is in over his head with Sam.

He'd originally seen him and his brain had connected the magic words 'Temp' and 'Twink' and gotten him interested faster than free candy.

And he'd lifted him, actually toted him off the ground like it was nothing – how could he resist a guy who could do that?

Then – married – big bust there.

But he hadn't backed off, no, he'd invited Sammy-The-Wonder-Hetero to lunch, like the masochist he was. Just because he couldn't touch didn't mean he couldn't look.

In no way was it connected to the fact that since he'd met Sam he'd called off his appointments with James, usually he only hired the guy out for his mouth, but the smaller, pale man was the complete opposite of Sam. Gabriel wasn't really interested in a substitute.

So, there had been lunch, jokes, banter. Three things Gabriel prided himself on being able to do exceptionally well. But somehow it had devolved into...well, feelings, an intricate game of gay chicken, and then he'd caught Sam watching him lick his fingers free of frosting, caught him in the early, guilty stages of arousal.

Really he should have backed off, he should not, as a moral person and as the guys boss, have leaned in for a better look at the rising arousal exhibited by a married colleague.

And then he'd paid – technically that made it a date.

He was screwed – that's what he was, and he fully admitted it.

The following day he got one of the interns to deliver a summons to his office, hoping that Sam wouldn't just avoid him out of awkwardness, and that he'd actually come in to work rather than stay home and order his sexual assessment claim.

Fortunately Sam is in fact in the building, and taps tentatively on his office door around the time that everyone else has gone to lunch. Gabriel freezes over his memo pad.

"Come in."

Sam looks...sheepish, ducking into the office and scuffling his feet into the Persian rug by the door.

"You can have a seat...you know I don't bite." Mentally Gabriel kicks himself, why can't he just talk to this guy like a normal person? Why must he sound like he's ripping his lines from a porno?

Sam sits regardless, looking fixedly at the desk between them. That's good, Gabriel can work with lack of eye contact.

"So...I wanted to apologise for yesterday." He begins. "I was out of line...blame it on a massive fluctuation in blood sugar...maybe stress? Something anyway..." He clenches his hands together on the shiny surface of the desk. "Rest assured it won't happen again and...I'm sorry, for any discomfort."

Sam stares at the papers and toys on the desk unseeingly.

"That's really all I had to say." Gabriel prompts. When Sam still doesn't move Gabriel gets up and circles the desk, moving towards the door to show Sam from the room. "If you don't mind I have to get on with...mmnf!"

Some part of his brain finds the fact that there's a lawyer on his face vaguely amusing.

The rest is kind of overloaded with the fact that said lawyer tastes like mocha, and he's pressed so close against him that Gabriel can feel him slowly growing hard beneath his suit pants. Sam kisses hard, pressing him against the door and half lifting him so as not to crick his neck at the angle. Gabriel opens his mouth against his, feeling an answering sweep of tongue and groaning low in the back of his throat.

Sam pulls away abruptly.

"I...uh...I have...I'm sorry." Sam backs away with his hands in the air, face flushed and eyes almost comically wide.

Gabriel pushes him back towards the desk, knocking his legs against it so the taller man falls into range again, his hips nudge between Sam's legs as he drags his head down into another kiss. His hand grips the top of his thigh and Sam's fingers wrap around his hips.

Blood pounds on his ears and he honestly can't believe that he's got a married man, so much stronger than him, taller by two feet, almost spread on his desk, grinding into him. He pulls his mouth away for a second, feeling his lips burn from the pressure and the wet slick of saliva on them. Sam looks up at him blearily.

"Sam..." he can't help panting, he really can't. "You, sure, about this?"

Sam's hand strokes down his side, and the taller man closes his eyes as he cups the front of Gabriel's slacks. He nods, and feels Gabriel's moan against his throat as the other man kisses his way across the skin.

"Jesus Sammy..."

And he can't stop himself, because, well, self control has never been top of his list of virtues.

Dry humping legal advisors against his desk thought? Does not suck.

He ends up rubbing the other man furiously through the thin fabric of his slacks, feeling Sam buck and shudder with pleasure, his other hand stroking himself distractedly. When the man pinned underneath him starts to whimper, hips straining up into his hands, Gabriel pauses to yank down his zipper and press his hand through the slit in his boxers. Sam jack-knifes forwards at the sudden contact of Gabriel's hot fingers.

"Holy...fuck, just..." He groans. Gabriel fumbles with his own fly.

"Trust me." He mutters.

And that's all the warning Sam gets before the hot line of Gabriel's dick is pressed against his own, a burning, too intimate slide of soft flesh on flesh. Gabriel squeezes his eyes shut, feels heat blaze through his abdomen. Sam cries out, a wordless keening moan as they rut together, Gabriel's hand balancing them on the desk, palm slipping in sweat. Seconds before he shudders and comes into the hot space between them, he hears Sam whisper 'Yes' as his fingers grip the back of his neck.

Panting and shaking, he manages to fumble a tissue from the box on the desk, cleaning them both carefully, listening the Sam whimper as he strokes his softened cock free of ejaculate. He kisses a line across his jaw, zipping him up carefully and allowing him to stand.

After a few long moments of silence in which Gabriel can see the young lawyer pulling himself together, Sam looks at him cautiously.

"I don't know what to do." And Gabriel doesn't need more explanation than that, because nothing about this feels like a one-time-only thing.

"That's ok." Gabriel can see the panic rising in him, and he really doesn't want Sam to hurt over this.

"I'm married, Gabriel."

"I know." He sticks his hands into his pockets.

"I need to think about this...but...thank you..." Sam flushes. "that was...amazing, and you're..."

"I know, I'm awesome." Gabriel smiles as best he can. "Go, think. I'll still be here Sam."

Sam leaves and Gabriel crumples into his desk chair, at a loss for what to do.

The three days he waits for Sam to call him are agonising, but call he does, and not, as Gabriel had thought, with an invitation to a discrete hook up – but with the news that Ruby, his wife, has been cheating on him, delivered with chagrined resignation, and an offer of lunch with his brother, and his brothers new boyfriend. Which Gabriel eagerly accepts.

All things considered it's a fairly eventful story, and one that will be dramatically toned down when Sam re-tells it at their engagement party two years and one quick divorce later.


End file.
